A Brave Retreat
by acekanigirl
Summary: "Run away from battle motivationally". When fighting a giganto monster, Karol finally finds the courage to take leadership. -A one-shot based on the objective for the Professor Sicily side quest.


**Hey guys! Wow, I haven't really written anything in almost a year (not to mention it's my first time writing for this fandom, despite having read it since early 2012) but I found this story half-written this afternoon on my computer, realized that it's actually pretty good, and decided to finish/publish this because Tales of Vesperia really needs more fanfics. You can probably find where I started writing today based on where the quality deteriorates. **

**The basic idea of this story hit me when I first played the side quests of the game realized how awkward the objectives were for Professor Sicily's side quest. I was trying to get 50 escapes from battle to earn Karol's but I realized the only battles I ran away from were when I was being killed by giganto monsters and this ensued. Not a big fan of the ending but tell me what you think.**

**I do not own Tales of Vesperia. The series belongs to Namco Bandai.**

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The battle was going on for far too long, Karol groaned to himself. His hammer felt heavier than ever in his closed fists as they rested on his lap, his lungs gasping for breath and his heart beating heavily, a mix between the speed from extra adrenaline and a slower steady beat fueled by exhaustion.

Brave Vesperia was still running around the battlefield, trying to slay the griffin before them while Karol caught his breath. Yuri had insisted on the fight on their way to rest in Yumanju, and after telling the guild that it would help Rich at the King of Adventure inn, Estelle readily agreed. With Judith itching for a fight, Rita worried about the other's stupidity getting them and Estelle all killed, Repede always sticking by Yuri, and Raven worried about the monster endangering his precious hot springs (while adamantly volunteering to watch Judith's back… but mostly front), it seemed that Karol's doubt about the fight was another example of his cowardice.

But even the fear and urge to run away had been worn down by this point, leaving numbing exhaustion as the fight wore on. And now as Karol turned and fled from a kick from the airborne griffin, he began to believe he was right. Estelle was even further away from the fray than he was, collapsed on her knees with her staff in her hands as she tried to catch her breath after continuously healing her guild mates. Rita was digging through her bag for an orange gel that probably wasn't there anymore, her face pale from using too much magic, while Raven stood next to her, firing the occasional arrow while all the more often wincing as he held a hand over his heart.

The gesture reminded Karol of the old man's past betrayal, and the blastia in there that was likely going haywire. The guild boss remembered the two of them mentioning the negative effects of aer on blastia, and he now realized that they were worse than they physically appeared, though that wasn't much better.

They had managed to land some scratches on the giganto monster, but those could all easily be healed by any less than competent healer. Even Estelle in her current condition had the strength to close the small cuts on the bird's wings, though she didn't have the strength to look at the 'scratches' that were oozing blood down Karol, and everyone else's arms. Only Yuri and Judith seemed okay, though both looked beat up, they had as feral a smile on their faces as the monster, and as much bloodlust in their eyes as the liquid itself on their bodies. Yuri's confidence had always made Karol feel safe, but now, for the first time, it made him worry he'd be killed.

After another unsuccessful attempt to heave his hammer over his head and onto the griffin's, Karol moved past his doubt, his hesitation, his cowardice, and called out to his guild, his allies, his friends "we're not gonna make it!"

But where Karol saw the strength to lead, Yuri only saw the fight. "Come on captain!" his voice called out, "we can't give up already! It's just starting to put up a fight!"

"Yes Karol," Judith piped in, her voice calm despite the heavy breathing everyone was doing; even Yuri had seemed more fazed. "This is fun!"

Karol dodged a dozen feet back, unable to keep up with Judith and Yuri in conversation while not getting killed. An arrow flew over his bent head, simply bouncing off the beast's feathers and then the stream that had been flowing steadily stopped. "Look, Judith darling. I know ya got ya dangerous hobbies, but I agree with the kid here. We really need to get outta here and rest and wash up on our vacation, not go and almost get ourselves killed."

Rita, though she didn't have the energy to cast a spell, could hurt the old man any day. "Pervert. You just want to see Judith washing that blood off."

"That may be, my darling young lass, but ah, how that beauty will be wasted if we all dropped dead." He swooned, though Karol's eye, more cautious and protective of his friends than he once was caught Raven's small wince behind his hand as he clutched harder at his heart.

"Hey, hey, hey old man!" Yuri interrupted, slashing the beast with a dragon swarm, yelling over his shoulder at Raven and turning back for another quick azure edge before abandoning the monster completely to face his elder. "No one said we're going to die here. We're just going to have our fun, kill this thing, show Rich that he doesn't have to chase after his father's dream his whole life, and then you can go bathe with Judith all you want."

"Yuri!" The scolding shout came from Estelle, resulting in a smirk from the guild leader, before she yelled again "YURI!"

The pink-haired healer had stood up and ran to the swordsman's side, flinging herself behind Yuri… and in the way of the griffin's peaking beak as it hit her. She fell to the ground as the monster continued mercilessly and by the time the bird lifted itself back into the air its beak was red with the princess's blood. Yuri could only stare for a second before he forced his aer into guardian field, yet the weak healing spell was not enough for Estelle's injuries and she lay unconscious on the ground.

But the griffin hadn't given up. Raven was the first to stop the giganto monster flying towards Rita, who had her eyes closed in an attempt to gather enough aer for one last spell. The archer quickly fired three arrows in the mage's direction but the bird reached her faster and within a second and a single scream the second girl was out cold in the grass.

This time though the griffin could not escape. Judith ran forward and leaped into the air, using moonbeam to transport herself right over a vulnerable wing joint and slamming down, letting the aer explode around the injury and push the joint outwards from all sides. The monster halted in its liftoff for a second, flapping its wing to regain control of the nerves and allowing Judith to transport herself back next to Karol, some of the griffon's blood splashed across her spear and her smiling face.

"Judith!" The young guild boss cried out in shock, sputtering for a second before letting out, "we-we have to do something about Estelle and Rita!"

Judith just looked on ahead, a small pout crossing her face, "but we're just getting to the good part." She rushed back into the fray as the griffin finally shaked its wing off, preparing itself for another aerial assault on Yuri, who was taking advantage of its weakness to slash at the iron feathers on its tail.

Karol took in the sight in front of him: Judith and Yuri covered in blood that was both (mostly) their's while some was the monster's. Estelle and Rita lay approximately twenty feet apart, with Raven guarding over the princess while Repede, too injured by the cuts across his body and legs to do much more than stand guard over Rita. Everyone was injured and no one was smiling anymore as Yuri received a claw to the side.

For the first time since the Baitojoh trapped his friends in its aer krene trap Karol felt truly helpless and scared. But he refused to let the shaking in his legs (from the stress of standing as much as fear) from distracting him from what he needed to do. Yuri had taught him how to be brave, to face his problems and his fear rather than running away… but sometimes… what he feared more than anything was something that he couldn't simply beat into submission. Karol knew that more than he had ever feared for himself he feared for the lives of his friends.

Suddenly Karol felt his legs stop quaking and he stood up firm with his hammer in his grasp. He would be brave, brave like Yuri, like Estelle, and like everyone else who made up his Brave Vesperia. He was supposed to be their leader, their boss and their motivator and for once Karol knew he would return the protection they had offered him in the only way he knew how.

"No Judith!" He stopped as the Krityan's head whipped in his direction. "We're ending this fight now! I won't let any of my friends get hurt because of me- because I failed as a guild boss to see when we were getting in over our heads. Our job is to protect Estelle, that's what comes first, and that means that we back down when she gets hurt." Even Yuri had stopped fighting and was staring at him now, an unreadable expression on his face that Karol only hoped would turn into approval.

"You and Yuri take Rita and Estelle and get out of here. Raven and Repede you too. I'll-" Karol lowered himself into a fighting stance and held his hammer upwards in his grasp. "I'll hold off the monster while you guys go."

"Karol!" Yuri quickly broke the tension that carried over Karol's speech, and when the boy made eye contact with his idol he saw true fear in Yuri's eyes. _So he sometimes gets scared too._

"No. I'm too tired to get Estelle away from here fast enough, we'll be too big a target. Raven's not fit to carry anyone and his arrows won't hold that thing back. You go on ahead Yuri, I'll be running right after you."

"Karol…" Yuri's face softened for a moment as he closed his eyes, before all the confusion was washed away by his confident smirk. "Alright. You're the boss after all."

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As the rest of the team ran/limped away from the battlefield, Raven stopped to look over his shoulder at Karol. "Ah, the joys of youth, watching a young soul like that risk himself for his friends. It warms this old man's heart."

Yuri stopped next to the archer, not even panting even though Estelle was draped across his back. "The boss really has grown up since we first met him. He used to try to run away from everything that scared him, now he's really learned to take one for the team." Yuri looked over his shoulder, but whether he was looking at the battle across the plain or simply Estelle sleeping on his shoulder Raven would never know. "He better make it back from this. Estelle won't like to hear that Karol had to fight off another monster to protect her again."

"The kid'll be fine. And you never know how it is with someone like the ladies. Something tells me when all's said and done she'll turn it inta one of those inspirational fairy tales she's tellin'."


End file.
